Bermudian Springs attitude change paying off with three straight wins

The Eagles (6-7) won their third straight game, 12-4, against Dover (1-10), early Saturday afternoon to inch closer to .500 after losing seven straight games.

Bermudian Springs coach Eric McClintic and his players can point out exactly what's changed to reverse the team's fortunes, and it isn't pitching, hitting or fielding. It's attitude.

"My guys are ready to play ball. They finally got it together and got the right attitude," McClintic said. "They came out and are playing hard."

Bermudian Springs broke a tie game wide open in the fifth inning by batting around and scoring six runs. Third baseman Brady Myers, who went 2-for-4 to continue a recent spurt, got the scoring started with a high-arcing two-run single that landed in the right-center field gap.

"The first two (pitches) were low and outside, and I can't hit those," Myers said, smirking. "I always miss those, but that last one was right there, and I smoked it.

"It seemed like it really got everyone else going, really got everyone else all pumped up. If they see I can do it, they know anyone can do it, right?"

The floodgates opened after that, as Alex Tweardy, Derek Starner and Toby Sponseller all drove in runs with base hits.

Sponseller, who reached base in three of his four plate appearances, struck out four batters in 2 2/3 innings of relief to close out the game.

Bermudian Springs' attitude change, and the wins that have come with it, are coming just as the air warms up in southcentral Pennsylvania. Saturday's game took place in sunshine and mid-70-degree temperatures, and Myers said that's not a coincidence.

"You've gotta want to be there, you've gotta want to play," he said. "If you don't want to be there, you're obviously not gonna perform. Today we came out ready to go.

"It's so much nicer when the weather's nice, everyone wants to be here way more. It's not cold, we're not all shivering in the infield."

While Bermudian Springs seems to be heading in a new direction, Dover is still looking to pick up its second win of the season. Coach Mike Santoro's team was hindered by a lack of pitching depth that came with playing four games this week with three more coming up next week. But his Eagles fought back from a 3-0 deficit early on to tie the game in the top of the fifth inning, and put together a small rally against Sponseller in the seventh.

"The type of kids we have, I'm very proud of them. We constantly fight back, they show a lot of strong character to fight back, tie games up, get into games like this," Santoro said. "Even in that last inning, I was very proud of them to finish strong and score a run in that last inning."